The announcement that up to 1,600 jobs are to be lost at 12 Magnox nuclear power stations by September 2016 is ‘shocking’, Unite, the country’s largest union, said today (Thursday 21 May).

Unite national officer for energy, Kevin Coyne said: “Basically, the workforce is shocked by the number of redundancies involved. Some redundancies were expected, but not on this scale. It will lead to a loss of vital skills and expertise in the nuclear industry which could have an impact on new nuclear build.

“We will be seeking an urgent meeting with the company, as we don’t have numbers of who will be affected prior to any consultation taking place. It is shocking news for the workers and their families. We will be campaigning for no compulsory redundancies.

“Our concern is that the decommissioning of these power stations will be slowed down with such a large reduction in the workforce and the skills that they possess.

“We question whether there will be enough available manpower to do this complex work in decommissioning in the future and we will be seeking assurances on this issue.

“We believe the impetus behind this large job loss announcement is due to a downward revision of the cost analysis by Cavendish Nuclear Flour which was awarded the decommissioning contract by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).”

Eleven of the plants have already shut down and are in the process of being decommissioned and the only one in operation, Wylfa on Anglesey in North Wales, is due to stop generating power at the end of the year.
ENDS